I, on the other hand, didn't enjoy reading The Lottery. I don't exactly understand the message that was conveyed to the reader, as the members of the community choose to murder one citizen of their town each and every year, crudely disguising it as a "lottery". It seems to almost ridicule religion, as this seems to be a religious activity, martyrizing one person a year (not to mention the pronunciation of the family name Delacroix, which means of the cross, is always butchered by the townspeople). Although there was nothing wrong with story, I was not entertained at all by it, as there seemed to be no problem solved. The story was written as a simple observation of the aforementioned events, with no evidence to the murders of hardworking citizens ending in this town.
-Thomas Moran
I truly enjoyed reading, “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, I thought it was a very enticing story with an interesting plot twist. Throughout the story Jackson used various details, but did not give enough information for the reader to know what the “lottery” is. At the end, we finally discover that the “lottery” is a sort of ritual that is supposed to bring good luck to the town and help the annual harvest. This information gave the story a total plot change, kept the reader hooked into the story; her way of writing kept me interested and made me wonder what was going to come next. Her use of imagery painted a descriptive picture of what was happening within the story. This imagery was used to show the way the men were holding their slips of paper, how everybody was in a nervous mood, and just the overall image of how the people acted and looked.-Nikita Lewis The short story The Lottery by Shirley Jackson was an intriguing story that I truly enjoyed. While I was reading it I was thinking that the story went way too far into detail and used too much imagery, but the ending changed everything. The ending completely changed my opinion on the whole story. The way Shirley was so deceptive to the reader had me fooled and it was an entire surprise to me “winning” the lottery actually means losing your life. Learning this flips everything around 180° and makes you rethink the whole story. When someone in the crowd says “I hope Nancy doesn’t win it”, you first think it’s a child being cruel but once the reader learns the lottery means getting stoned one realizes that the child was actually sympathetic because she didn’t want Nancy to be killed. The overall story was good and I actually enjoyed reading it.
-David Morse I highly disliked The Lottery because I feel as if the whole beginning was too detailed. I would have enjoyed it a lot more if I didn’t have to suffer through five pages of description. Also, I think it’s misleading because you think the lottery is like the modern lotteries we have today. But, at the end of the story, you realize if you win the lottery, you actually lose and get stoned, which really sucks. It really irritated me how Tessie was complaining about how her husband got the marked paper. I know nobody wants to be stoned, but she lost fair in square so she should just take the beating. I think she deserved to get stoned because she came late to the lottery in the first place. So, she should have gotten stoned no matter what as a punishment for her late arrival. But, in my opinion, this story was really annoying due to how detailed it was to begin with, which made me really bored, and also because of how annoyed I was to find out what the lottery actually was.
-Megan Kane The idea of a lottery brings the idea of luck into the minds of the players. Luck is normally a good thing, however in the story, The Lottery, by Shirley Jackson, it certainly is not. This story was less than interesting. The beginning describes the process of a lottery which is not only worthless it just isn’t very entertaining. After all this, the reader learns on the last page that this isn’t the kind of lottery that you want to win, it’s in fact a religious display of sacrifice. By building the reader up to this last message, the author has simply wasted her time writing. The entire essence of this story could have been shortened and not nearly as dull. I don’t exactly understand the author’s purpose in writing either, was it simply to show that a lottery meant one’s death at this particular point in the past? Either way, this story was boring and uneventful. -Zack Hutton
I did not particularly like the story The Lottery, it was very misleading and cruel. Usually when you think of a lottery you think of a happy ending where a person wins money or some sort of great prize, but this was not that kind of lottery. This lottery was mean and rude, it did not even have a purpose. Did someone just decide that one day every year they would choose someone from the village to throw stones at? I does not make much sense, there was no reason or purpose to it. People almost seemed excited about it in the beginning of the story, but I don’t understand why anyone would be excited about being stoned, or seeing a family member or friend be stoned. Besides the suspense to find out what winning the lottery truly meant the story overall was not one of my favorites.
-Leah Schultz
The Lottery was an interesting short story by Shirley Jackson that I didn’t enjoy reading until the very end of the story. The beginning of the story was just filled with too much detail that it was boring to read so it all just went over my head. Once Bill received the paper with the black dot on it, the story then became more tolerable since it wasn’t just descriptive paragraphs. I could actually tell what was going on instead of reading everything over and over again. The end of the short story had an exciting twist when Tessie wins this so called “lottery” and gets bombarded by stones. Her death was so random and unexpected to me that I found it amusing and humorous, but it makes one wonder, why? What’s the point of writing this story? The whole thing just seems so pointless. I was expecting her to win something fantastic and beneficial like gold maybe, but nope, she dies! How ridiculous is that?! This is the worst lottery ever.
-Raymond To
The short story, The Lottery, by Shirley Jackson was a very interesting read that took a monumental turn at the end. In the beginning of the story, Jackson described a perfect June day in a perfect little town. Only to discover that in the end, the town was in no way perfect, in fact, it was more corrupt. Jackson also illustrated all of the townspeople, including children, gathered in the middle of town for the yearly lottery. The families made polite conversation while they waited for the lottery to begin. Jackson gave the impression that the lottery was a fun event. However, the “winner” of the lottery was really the loser. I thought that this twist at the end was really interesting and unexpected; it made the story unique and memorable. The situational irony that took place in this short story gave it more depth and, personally I really enjoyed it.
Melissa Belanger
I personally did not like The Lottery, I found it very misleading, the way that they built the story up with the sunny clear day only to make you think that this was going to be a happy story. It gave me the impression that everyone was lining up to win something and they were all excited for it, when in reality someone was lining up to get picked for a stoning ritual, in which nobody would be excited about. I thought it was strange how Old Man Warner was so appalled that some towns would get rid of the lottery, when in actuality everyone would gladly give up their ability to get stoned by their town if it came down to them, tradition or not. The story would of been much better if it wasn't so delusive and gave you a hint from the beginning what kind of story it would be, some people get intrigued by the deceit, but I personally did not like that about The Lottery.
- Jacqueline Pyros
I did not enjoy The Lottery by Shirley Jackson at all. It was far too detailed and seemed to have no point. All of the details made it hard for me to understand, and I had to read several pages over again before I understood what was being said. After I understood what was written, I was annoyed because I could not find the deeper meaning I was originally looking for. I also didn’t like the way the author built up the lottery to be an exciting event that everyone‘s looking forward to, but in the end we find out that its not good at all. The people look forward to the lottery, but I’m not sure why, since the “winner‘s” prize is getting stoned. I would not recommend the story to anyone, because I feel I wasted my time reading through all of the details.
- Jaqueline Linden
Personally, I really enjoyed reading The Lottery. The way Jackson set up the story using the imagery of an all around perfect summer day in late June; without a cloud in the sky, made readers completely unaware of what they were about to read, would actually have a brutal ending. I sensed an eerie vibe towards the middle of the reading, making me believe that something was a little "off" with this lottery. In the beginning of this short story, the children of the village were gathering stones as people of the community were coming together to hear the announcements. I thought it was odd towards the reasoning of why the children were collecting rocks, but I didn't find out until the last page of the story that I was able to put it together-- what only appeared as child's play, was actually playing a role towards a grown woman's harm. I always enjoyed stories such as this one, when the author can tie in small details from the beginning to help complete the ending. I highly recommend The Lottery, because I thoroughly enjoyed wondering what the next page would bring, and I think others would as well.
- Haley Jacob
In my opinion The Lottery by Shirley Jackson was a very out of the ordinary but interesting story . I enjoyed reading this short story because throughout it, the profound detail pulled me in and urged me to read on, to find out what the Lottery really was. The detail in which the author writes also allowed me to really imagine the setting and the characters. My favorite part was that by using a joyful tone in the beginning of the story, the author misleads me into thinking that the villagers were engaging in a positive community activity. This caused the ominous ending to come as a shock. Also I think that the almost strange ending made the story unique and caused me to enjoy it even more. Overall, I think that
The Lottery is a very intriguing and uniquely written story.
-Ioana Blidaru
I did not like the story The Lottery by Shirley Jackson because it was a very odd story that had an unfortunate ending. In the beginning of the story, you expect that it will be happy and something good will come out of the lottery because the setting is a crisp clear summer day and children are playing. The families, who are all very supportive of the lottery, act selfish and show little remorse for the family who “wins” the lottery, which was unexpected in such a small tight-knit community. The ending of the story was strange and unexpected. I do not understand why someone would write a story about a place where people pick names from a box every year to choose someone to be stoned to death; it’s barbaric. However, it was interesting that the author set such a primitive ritual in a more modern time and setting.
-Emma Kurfis
I thought the short story, The Lottery was very interesting and I enjoyed reading it. I thought the beginning of the story was very dull, and I almost thought I wasn't going to finish it because it seemed like it was going nowhere. I ended up reading the end and I would have to say it was very interesting, and came out of nowhere. In the beginning of the story, the theme was very peaceful, and everyone was loving, but the end of the story the peaceful town turned into an evil town. This change of the atmosphere in the story made it out to be a very interesting read. I was almost happy when i figured out someone didn't win something, it would of made the story very normal, which is no fun. I would enjoy to read other stories from this author.
Greg Plachta
I, contrary to Greg, did not enjoy reading The Lottery mainly because I did not fully understand the theme and message the author was trying to convey. The only interpritation I can take out of it was that it was a critisism of religious sacrafices. Since the town people did not know what The Lottery meant anymore, it lost all of its meaning and truth from the first time. The author protrayed how idiotic and ridiculous the whole ritual is showing how people were excited to come to an event in which they have a pretty great chance of dying. Why would anyone ever do that? Still, the theme is not clearly expressed and there are many different ways you can interpret it. Also, the story was not very engaging and the story did not progress very much.
Scott Saunders
I did not enjoy the short story The Lottery. At the beginning, you don’t really know what the lottery exactly is, all you know is that it is a small town gathering around the town center to draw a piece of paper from an old, black box. As the story continues though, we learn that the paper decides who from the town will be killed. I didn’t like this aspect of the story because to me, it just seems unfair to the person who is being killed by the rest of the townspeople. Also, I don’t think that it is right to have the chance of luck decide the fate of one person, especially if it is up to a piece of paper that is being drawn at random. Lastly, I didn’t like the fact that the rest of the townspeople used stones to kill the person from the family who had chosen the paper, it is unfair and cruel.
-Shelby Friend
I also did not enjoy The Lottery. I thought this story was creative in a sense but it was also very misleading. When I first read the title, I obviously thought of an actual lottery so I was looking forward to a pleasant ending, rather than someone getting stoned to death. I also didn't enjoy this story because its message and theme was hard to understand and wasn't clearly expressed. The title contradicts itself which also made it hard to interpret what the author was trying to portray. I don't see any purpose to the story because of it's harsh and cruel ending which most people found very misleading from the beginning.
-Jackie Plevelich
-Thomas Moran
I truly enjoyed reading, “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, I thought it was a very enticing story with an interesting plot twist. Throughout the story Jackson used various details, but did not give enough information for the reader to know what the “lottery” is. At the end, we finally discover that the “lottery” is a sort of ritual that is supposed to bring good luck to the town and help the annual harvest. This information gave the story a total plot change, kept the reader hooked into the story; her way of writing kept me interested and made me wonder what was going to come next. Her use of imagery painted a descriptive picture of what was happening within the story. This imagery was used to show the way the men were holding their slips of paper, how everybody was in a nervous mood, and just the overall image of how the people acted and looked.-Nikita Lewis
The short story The Lottery by Shirley Jackson was an intriguing story that I truly enjoyed. While I was reading it I was thinking that the story went way too far into detail and used too much imagery, but the ending changed everything. The ending completely changed my opinion on the whole story. The way Shirley was so deceptive to the reader had me fooled and it was an entire surprise to me “winning” the lottery actually means losing your life. Learning this flips everything around 180° and makes you rethink the whole story. When someone in the crowd says “I hope Nancy doesn’t win it”, you first think it’s a child being cruel but once the reader learns the lottery means getting stoned one realizes that the child was actually sympathetic because she didn’t want Nancy to be killed. The overall story was good and I actually enjoyed reading it.
-David Morse
I highly disliked The Lottery because I feel as if the whole beginning was too detailed. I would have enjoyed it a lot more if I didn’t have to suffer through five pages of description. Also, I think it’s misleading because you think the lottery is like the modern lotteries we have today. But, at the end of the story, you realize if you win the lottery, you actually lose and get stoned, which really sucks. It really irritated me how Tessie was complaining about how her husband got the marked paper. I know nobody wants to be stoned, but she lost fair in square so she should just take the beating. I think she deserved to get stoned because she came late to the lottery in the first place. So, she should have gotten stoned no matter what as a punishment for her late arrival. But, in my opinion, this story was really annoying due to how detailed it was to begin with, which made me really bored, and also because of how annoyed I was to find out what the lottery actually was.
-Megan Kane
The idea of a lottery brings the idea of luck into the minds of the players. Luck is normally a good thing, however in the story, The Lottery, by Shirley Jackson, it certainly is not. This story was less than interesting. The beginning describes the process of a lottery which is not only worthless it just isn’t very entertaining. After all this, the reader learns on the last page that this isn’t the kind of lottery that you want to win, it’s in fact a religious display of sacrifice. By building the reader up to this last message, the author has simply wasted her time writing. The entire essence of this story could have been shortened and not nearly as dull. I don’t exactly understand the author’s purpose in writing either, was it simply to show that a lottery meant one’s death at this particular point in the past? Either way, this story was boring and uneventful.
-Zack Hutton
I did not particularly like the story The Lottery, it was very misleading and cruel. Usually when you think of a lottery you think of a happy ending where a person wins money or some sort of great prize, but this was not that kind of lottery. This lottery was mean and rude, it did not even have a purpose. Did someone just decide that one day every year they would choose someone from the village to throw stones at? I does not make much sense, there was no reason or purpose to it. People almost seemed excited about it in the beginning of the story, but I don’t understand why anyone would be excited about being stoned, or seeing a family member or friend be stoned. Besides the suspense to find out what winning the lottery truly meant the story overall was not one of my favorites.
-Leah Schultz
The Lottery was an interesting short story by Shirley Jackson that I didn’t enjoy reading until the very end of the story. The beginning of the story was just filled with too much detail that it was boring to read so it all just went over my head. Once Bill received the paper with the black dot on it, the story then became more tolerable since it wasn’t just descriptive paragraphs. I could actually tell what was going on instead of reading everything over and over again. The end of the short story had an exciting twist when Tessie wins this so called “lottery” and gets bombarded by stones. Her death was so random and unexpected to me that I found it amusing and humorous, but it makes one wonder, why? What’s the point of writing this story? The whole thing just seems so pointless. I was expecting her to win something fantastic and beneficial like gold maybe, but nope, she dies! How ridiculous is that?! This is the worst lottery ever.
-Raymond To
The short story, The Lottery, by Shirley Jackson was a very interesting read that took a monumental turn at the end. In the beginning of the story, Jackson described a perfect June day in a perfect little town. Only to discover that in the end, the town was in no way perfect, in fact, it was more corrupt. Jackson also illustrated all of the townspeople, including children, gathered in the middle of town for the yearly lottery. The families made polite conversation while they waited for the lottery to begin. Jackson gave the impression that the lottery was a fun event. However, the “winner” of the lottery was really the loser. I thought that this twist at the end was really interesting and unexpected; it made the story unique and memorable. The situational irony that took place in this short story gave it more depth and, personally I really enjoyed it.
Melissa Belanger
I personally did not like The Lottery, I found it very misleading, the way that they built the story up with the sunny clear day only to make you think that this was going to be a happy story. It gave me the impression that everyone was lining up to win something and they were all excited for it, when in reality someone was lining up to get picked for a stoning ritual, in which nobody would be excited about. I thought it was strange how Old Man Warner was so appalled that some towns would get rid of the lottery, when in actuality everyone would gladly give up their ability to get stoned by their town if it came down to them, tradition or not. The story would of been much better if it wasn't so delusive and gave you a hint from the beginning what kind of story it would be, some people get intrigued by the deceit, but I personally did not like that about The Lottery.
- Jacqueline Pyros
I did not enjoy The Lottery by Shirley Jackson at all. It was far too detailed and seemed to have no point. All of the details made it hard for me to understand, and I had to read several pages over again before I understood what was being said. After I understood what was written, I was annoyed because I could not find the deeper meaning I was originally looking for. I also didn’t like the way the author built up the lottery to be an exciting event that everyone‘s looking forward to, but in the end we find out that its not good at all. The people look forward to the lottery, but I’m not sure why, since the “winner‘s” prize is getting stoned. I would not recommend the story to anyone, because I feel I wasted my time reading through all of the details.
- Jaqueline Linden
Personally, I really enjoyed reading The Lottery. The way Jackson set up the story using the imagery of an all around perfect summer day in late June; without a cloud in the sky, made readers completely unaware of what they were about to read, would actually have a brutal ending. I sensed an eerie vibe towards the middle of the reading, making me believe that something was a little "off" with this lottery. In the beginning of this short story, the children of the village were gathering stones as people of the community were coming together to hear the announcements. I thought it was odd towards the reasoning of why the children were collecting rocks, but I didn't find out until the last page of the story that I was able to put it together-- what only appeared as child's play, was actually playing a role towards a grown woman's harm. I always enjoyed stories such as this one, when the author can tie in small details from the beginning to help complete the ending. I highly recommend The Lottery, because I thoroughly enjoyed wondering what the next page would bring, and I think others would as well.
- Haley Jacob
In my opinion The Lottery by Shirley Jackson was a very out of the ordinary but
interesting story
. I enjoyed reading this short story because throughout it, the profound detail pulled me in and urged me to read on, to find out what the Lottery really was. The detail in which the author writes also allowed me to really imagine the setting and the characters. My favorite part was that by using a joyful tone in the beginning of the story, the author misleads me into thinking that the villagers were engaging in a positive community activity. This caused the ominous ending to come as a shock. Also I think that the almost strange ending made the story unique and caused me to enjoy it even more. Overall, I think that
The Lottery
is a very intriguing and uniquely written story.
-Ioana Blidaru
I did not like the story The Lottery by Shirley Jackson because it was a very odd story that had an unfortunate ending. In the beginning of the story, you expect that it will be happy and something good will come out of the lottery because the setting is a crisp clear summer day and children are playing. The families, who are all very supportive of the lottery, act selfish and show little remorse for the family who “wins” the lottery, which was unexpected in such a small tight-knit community. The ending of the story was strange and unexpected. I do not understand why someone would write a story about a place where people pick names from a box every year to choose someone to be stoned to death; it’s barbaric. However, it was interesting that the author set such a primitive ritual in a more modern time and setting.
-Emma Kurfis
I thought the short story, The Lottery was very interesting and I enjoyed reading it. I thought the beginning of the story was very dull, and I almost thought I wasn't going to finish it because it seemed like it was going nowhere. I ended up reading the end and I would have to say it was very interesting, and came out of nowhere. In the beginning of the story, the theme was very peaceful, and everyone was loving, but the end of the story the peaceful town turned into an evil town. This change of the atmosphere in the story made it out to be a very interesting read. I was almost happy when i figured out someone didn't win something, it would of made the story very normal, which is no fun. I would enjoy to read other stories from this author.
Greg Plachta
I, contrary to Greg, did not enjoy reading The Lottery mainly because I did not fully understand the theme and message the author was trying to convey. The only interpritation I can take out of it was that it was a critisism of religious sacrafices. Since the town people did not know what The Lottery meant anymore, it lost all of its meaning and truth from the first time. The author protrayed how idiotic and ridiculous the whole ritual is showing how people were excited to come to an event in which they have a pretty great chance of dying. Why would anyone ever do that? Still, the theme is not clearly expressed and there are many different ways you can interpret it. Also, the story was not very engaging and the story did not progress very much.
Scott Saunders
I did not enjoy the short story The Lottery. At the beginning, you don’t really know what the lottery exactly is, all you know is that it is a small town gathering around the town center to draw a piece of paper from an old, black box. As the story continues though, we learn that the paper decides who from the town will be killed. I didn’t like this aspect of the story because to me, it just seems unfair to the person who is being killed by the rest of the townspeople. Also, I don’t think that it is right to have the chance of luck decide the fate of one person, especially if it is up to a piece of paper that is being drawn at random. Lastly, I didn’t like the fact that the rest of the townspeople used stones to kill the person from the family who had chosen the paper, it is unfair and cruel.
-Shelby Friend
I also did not enjoy The Lottery. I thought this story was creative in a sense but it was also very misleading. When I first read the title, I obviously thought of an actual lottery so I was looking forward to a pleasant ending, rather than someone getting stoned to death. I also didn't enjoy this story because its message and theme was hard to understand and wasn't clearly expressed. The title contradicts itself which also made it hard to interpret what the author was trying to portray. I don't see any purpose to the story because of it's harsh and cruel ending which most people found very misleading from the beginning.
-Jackie Plevelich